The Great Gatsby

2/28/11

Gatsby

Love is underhanded. A feeling of intimacy is wonderful but conniving, it is as perishable as the bond man has to it. For every sensation of pleasure there is the feeling of devastation that appears when it is stripped away. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s dependency on the inaccessible is his demise. Gatsby is doomed from the day he left for war he left the world he loved and expected it to remain inactive in his absence, but for Daisy to remain stagnant while Gatsby progressed is just impossible; to not advance is to not to live at all, and Daisy’s carefree existence changes as easily as James Gatz turns into Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s entire fortune, and his entire life, really, is built upon the hope that someday he might rekindle his old love with Daisy. Gatsby is a man full of hope, love, passion, and raw emotion; however, above all of this he is a man of unwavering determination. His greatest strength was his fortitude, but unfortunately for Gatsby his fortitude was blind and power by sheer amounts of pure emotion. So, for Gatsby, when it came to love, one of the strongest of mans’ feelings, he was condemned. Nick watches Gatsby in his moments of power, moments of weakness, moments of anxiety, and moments of apprehension. Consequently, Nick is the only one who fully understands Gatsby, and is not surprised by his death. Nick sees Gatsby’s devotion to Daisy, and Daisy’s distance from him. The entire novel their love was not meant to be, but it’s not Daisy’s fault, nor Gatsby’s. It is the adjustment of time that came between them. Time is irreversible, and Gatsby’s love was foiled by time. When he was young he never thought he was good enough for Daisy, but when he acquired everything he possibly could he sought out to satisfy the Daisy of the past. What the couple could not comprehend was that five years had passed, and Daisy had married. She had progressed, and even though she was unhappy in her new marriage she was a different woman. In this aspect the blame is more on Gatsby, he could not understand that Daisy had changed, he still loved her and she still him, but the two wished for a time that had long since passed. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (115) It is arguable that in this passionate romance they should have adapted if they were really in love, but the problem is that they were really in love. Gatsby’s entire existence was dependent on acquiring Daisy, but again the Daisy of the past. The couple was stuck in a mindset of what could have been, and it stopped them from restarting their relationship because they only knew each other in memories. Gatsby never took the time to learn about the new Daisy, and Daisy had no regard for what Gatsby had evolved to. The fault is on the duo themselves, and no one else; that is if blame must be thrown, the real criminal is still time. The essence of the human existence is to develop and grow until humanity is the very best it can be, and both Gatsby and Daisy are far from perfection. To ask someone to not progress, especially after five years, is to ask them not to emote. Also Gatsby did not even hold true, he may have remain devoted to acquiring Daisy, but he went from genuinely loving her to making her a prize. “Gatsby 's dream fails because of his material wealth he must possess to accomplish it.” Gatsby had become stereotypically perfect. He had wealth, power, and fame, but his heart was empty. The problem is it was no longer devoid of love but of the idea of one person. One person he had put on a pedestal that she could not possibly live up to. The simple fact is that Gatsby; much like Holden did with Jenny, made Daisy into something she could never become again. Daisy could not remain on her pedestal because she was all too real. She was a person with flaws and feelings, with weaknesses and strengths that were generally, too normal for Gatsby to comprehend. The world that had grown between the couple was just too much for either of them to understand. Time can be a blessing sometimes and others the villain. Gatsby death was imminent from the day he left Daisy. In his mind Daisy could withstand the test of time, but unfortunately the real Daisy could not. It is not a question of love, because love they did, it is more the fact that time is irreversible and its impact unchangeable.

Work Cited

Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. Print

"Analysis: The Great Gatsby." Michigan State University. Est. 1855. East Lansing, Michigan USA. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .

Cited: Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. Print "Analysis: The Great Gatsby." Michigan State University. Est. 1855. East Lansing, Michigan USA. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .